title: Paediatric health-care professionals: relationships between psychological distress, resilience and coping skills.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of regular exposure to paediatric medical trauma on multidisciplinary teams in a paediatric hospital and the relationships between psychological distress, resilience and coping skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, secondary traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, resilience and coping skills were measured in 54 health professionals and compared with published norms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants experienced more symptoms of secondary traumatic stress (P < 0.01), showed less resilience (P = 0.05) and compassion satisfaction (≥ 0.01), more use of optimism and sharing as coping strategies, and less use of dealing with the problem and non-productive coping strategies than comparative groups. Non-productive coping was associated with more secondary traumatic stress (r = 0.50, P = 0.05), burnout (r = 0.45, P = 0.01), post-traumatic stress disorder (r = 0.41, P = 0.05), anxiety (r = 0.42, P = 0.05), depression (r = 0.54, P = 0.01), and stress (r = 0.52, P = 0.01) and resilience was positively associated with optimism (r = 0.48, P = 0.01). Health professionals <25 years old used more non-productive coping strategies (P = 0.05), less 'sharing as a coping strategy' (P = 0.05) and tended to have more symptoms of depression (P = 0.06).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Paediatric medical trauma can adversely affect a health professional's well-being, particularly those <25 years of age who make less use of positive coping strategies and more use of non-productive coping. These findings will assist the development of effective and meaningful interventions for health professionals working in paediatric hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Computer, Health and Science, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McGarry
authors.forename: Sonya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Girdler
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valentine
authors.forename: Shew-Lee
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014904:Western Australia
keywords: multidisciplinary team; psychiatry/mental health; trauma